I get the 30 day thing, but once you start watching you have to watch within 24hrs now that would put me off renting.

I also think they should have gone a sort of Netflix root.

$30/month rent up to 10 films a month etc ($40 for HD)
$60/month for up to 20 etc
Keep them as long as you like but you can only have x rentals at a time.
No lock in for how long you have them or how many times you can watch them.

That would be kind of a cool plan. I'll probably try renting a few movies from the Apple TV, but I can't see myself leaving Netflix. I'm actually more excited about the new podcast section. It will be nice having all that HD stuff in one place. And while we are on the subject of plans, I think it would be cool if Apple offered a Rhapsody type music service through the Apple TV and iTunes. I would sign up for that instantly._________________1.25GHz Mac Mini / 1.8GHz iMac G5 / 2.0GHz C2D Mac mini (2009)
4GB iPod mini / 2G iPod shuffle / 16GB iPhone 3G
Apple TV 2
iLife's a Bitch!

I'm in the UK so I've no idea how many dollars it is to rent a film from Netflix. In fact I've no idea how much it is to rent a film in the UK. I just based my figures on the Apple Rental costs. It was the idea more than the cost I was trying to get across._________________Phil

You can basically get the best Netflix or Blockbuster plan for around $20. That gets you like three DVDs at a time of unlimited rentals per month. In the case of Netflix, that also gets you unlimited streaming of movies. Currency converter puts that at just over £10. I have no idea how that relates to the price of things in the UK.

My ISP caps me during peak periods. although they still advertise they offer an unlimited download service. I can download for only 20 minutes after which time my speed drops to 1mbps for the next 5 hours As I only tend to use the computer during peak periods I would be wary of downloading a lot of movies._________________Phil

I think thats where we are going... Metered services which will kill all these movie download services, TV streaming etc before they even start.

My ISPs get out is they throttle your download not cut it, so you can continue to download so it must therefore be unlimited However I pay for a 4mB service and only have it for 20 minutes a night. Then I drop to 1mB service. Its been like this since May07._________________Phil

I think the biggest problem with rentals will be this... while 24hours to view once started might be OK for AppleTV users (XBOX is 48hours), I don't think it will work for iPod users. I for one, seldom watch an entire movie in one sitting on my iPod. I typically only do so when I am sitting in a waiting room, giving blood, etc. I may stretch a movie out over weeks this way. I mean, if it is something new that I want to see that bad, I will view it at home on the big screen. Also, I have one of the 5th generation iPods... one of the last that will play video out to a TV as I understand it.. so it seems to me that once folks realize they have to rent and watch their movies that quickly on their iPods, that the rental thing may not work out so well... but we will see I guess...

I think the biggest problem with rentals will be this... while 24hours to view once started might be OK for AppleTV users (XBOX is 48hours), I don't think it will work for iPod users. I for one, seldom watch an entire movie in one sitting on my iPod. I typically only do so when I am sitting in a waiting room, giving blood, etc. I may stretch a movie out over weeks this way. I mean, if it is something new that I want to see that bad, I will view it at home on the big screen. Also, I have one of the 5th generation iPods... one of the last that will play video out to a TV as I understand it.. so it seems to me that once folks realize they have to rent and watch their movies that quickly on their iPods, that the rental thing may not work out so well... but we will see I guess...

Apple's target here is to increase ATV sales, not really iPods. Considering in the last quarter they sold 22 million alone! so the time frame while short, should serve to help move some ATV's. . .